CS

There's been a fair amount of interest around the Subtract and Divide blend modes that Adobe recently added to the Photoshop CS5 Layers panel. Subtract is not actually new; it's been around forever in the Calculations and Apply Image dialog boxes. And even in the Layers panel, where Subtract is a freshman, you could achieve the same effect by inverting a Linear Burn layer. The Divide mode, meanwhile, is slightly-more authentically new. (Inverting a Color Dodge layer produces an identical effect, but previously there was no mode named Divide.) Even so, they have their uses. Which is why Blend Mode Man so enthusiastically contemplates their formulas below:

It's okay if you're afraid. You'd have to be as wicked-cool as Blend Mode Man to smile in the face of such bewildering information. Thankfully, it only gets easier from here. (But you'll have to be member to read more.) Read more »